Powder injection molding (PIM) can be used to produce complex shaped parts of metal, ceramic and/or carbide materials. PIM involves the homogenization of a feedstock, having at least two components. The two components are: 1) an injection powder which is a finely divided solid particulate, of a material such as, a metal, a ceramic, or carbide, and 2) a binder, that is typically an organic material and may include a lubricant. The feedstock is injected into a mold to produce a green part. This green part is further processed to eliminate the binder in a process of debinding, where a porous and friable brown part is produced. The brown part is sintered to produce the final product that may be in the form of a complex shaped part. Some advantages of powder injection molding are high purity product formation, the ability to repeatedly produce complex final product shapes having close tolerances.
While PIM and metal injection molding (MIM) provide for the manufacturing of complex parts, there is still a need to facilitate joining of two or more PIM parts to enable manufacturing of even more complicated parts.